The search for a new home for the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry has come down to three sites, each within a mile of the present facility in the basement of Jewish Family & Children’s Service at 10950 Schuetz Road.

The JFCS board expects to close on a building by March 1 and move into the facility sometime in June, with operations starting soon thereafter, said board chairman Fred Steinbach.

“We know we need 12,500 square feet at a minimum, Steinbach said. “The buildings we are looking at are 20,000 to 25,000 square feet.

“It’s fair to say it’s a buyer’s market, but the sellers are negotiating strongly.”

The board has authorized spending up to $1 million for the structure. All three buildings under consideration are one-story.

The food pantry, one of several in the St. Louis area that provides canned, dried and fresh food to people in need of all faiths, has experienced a sharp increase in demand as the troubled economy continues, Steinbach said.

The recession and poor employment situation mean that many more people have been going to the pantry for food-and that trend is expected to worsen, he said.

Clients can pick up food once a month. The amount they can receive depends upon the number of people in the household. Each household is to get the fundamentals of a balanced diet, as determined by U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.

In November, about 6,800 people received food, which was even higher than the rough average of 6,000 for all of 2011. A year earlier, about 2,500 clients asked for food aid, said Carol Staenberg, a board member who heads a task force on the needs of the pantry in the future.

Demand for food is not expected to abate anytime soon, Steinbach said. The board decided last year that it needed to find a new facility where canned, dried and perishable food can be stored and passed out to clients. The board’s working premise, Steinbach said, was that demand will continue to grow indefinitely.

“The board is predicting a long, long run of need in the future,” he said. “We have people who used to be donors and are now recipients.”

Steinbach and Staenberg emphasized that when the food pantry moves to a new building, Jewish Family & Children’s Service will continue to operate at its present location.

The board will give naming rights for the building for $1 million, Steinbach said. Then it will need to raise an additional $2 million to $3 million to cover future operating and maintenance expenses. Steinbach is overseeing the fundraising while Staenberg is in charge of moving into the new building.

She said she expects a corps of about 100 volunteers to move the food pantry into the new building over a three-day period.

“We hope for no interruption in service,” she said.

Several details have to be worked out before the new food pantry will be in operation. For one thing, Steinbach said, the new building could have a way for people to go to pick up food so that their identities are protected. At the present food bank, in the JF&CS building, clients await their turn in a public waiting room. The new building may have a separate entrance and exit so clients would not know who is in the building using the service.

Another possibility, Steinbach said, is that a shuttle service may be started to take clients back and forth between the food pantry and the JFCS building.

The present economic environment means that the food pantry is getting more clients from areas where people with higher incomes live. The 10 cities with the most food pantry clients are Olivette, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, University City, Maryland Heights, Overland, Jennings, St. Ann, Bel-Ridge and Hazelwood, as well as Ladue and other more affluent areas.

Plans for the building may include leasing the unused part of the building to help offset costs.

Steinbach said the food pantry is looking for donations of furniture, large freezers and other equipment to help it become fully functioning. He said the food pantry could pick up items that it agrees to accept as donations.